One of Eli's presents (from me :D) and I just love it so much, he wore it today and it made me smile so much all day long!!

( sweet miracle boy )

So blessed :)

( Christmas )

A few pics from christmas eve...

( <3 )

It's a ghost town around here! What are you all doing, celebrating the holidays or something? :)

I need to go to BED, early morning leaving for NYC with the (extended!) fam tomorrow, soooo darn excited, more than I was about Christmas I think :) Looking forward to a vacation and soaking in the jacuzzi for hours and hours, LMAO, my body is sooo beat, esp after the mile run yesterday, my thighs are just sooooo sore, omg!!!

Today was a wonderful day, we hit the Y, had a nice looong work out (almost 2 hours, it was great) and the kids enjoyed the childwatch.

Our day started later than anticipated, Mairi woke up and was up from 3am-5am puking off and on, wtf? Only like the 2nd time she's puked in her life, and again it was some sort of food poisoning, but we can't figure out what she ate! She wasn't sick, no fever, no chills, no tummy ache, just puking, it was really weird. Nor did she actually eat much candy or goodies or anything "bad" yesterday, so it was weird!

Thus after that we all slept in til 11am, and she woke up 100% fine, ate a normal breakfast, was starving, and has been fine all day.

Keith is such a good daddy, he got up with her, changed her bed (she's sleeping in her own room now, most/all of the night *sniff*) and I didn't even wake up til halfway through her puking session. Poor baby girl. he held her and rubbed her back and cleaned her up...what a daddy.

Anyway, then after the Y we went over to MIL's, to do Christmas with her and SIL and BIL. They all enjoyed our gifts, SIL was really touched (I think) by our donation to their boxer rescue where they've gotten both of their boxers from, thanks for the suggestion of that, it was way better than any old thing we could have gotten them, kwim? Very meaningful to her/them and I hope they could tell we put thought into it etc. MIL also seemed to be glad of the Y gift certificate we got her.

They spoiled us all, as per usual-SIL/BIL got us (K&me) gift cards to spend in NYC (AmEx ones) and MIL got us tons of goodies-a soooo soft blanket, kitchen items, clothes, shower stuff, etc. M and E also got spoiled, MIL got Mairi her own dvd player, with a case, and dvd case, so M was BEYOND excited, just in time for NYC too. She also got her some clothes. She got Eli a really cute sock monkey stuffed animal. SIL got Eli an awesome toy of a plush bag filled with plush fruits and veggies. He loves it.

Other SIL sent up our gifts, a big thing of sbux coffee and mugs with candy, which we might have to save for a rainy day in the future ;) Also Mairi got clothes (cutest jammies), books, and coloring books, and Eli got an adorable outfit and some little toy trucks.

Probably there was even more, I'm just tired and blanking out. So we were really blessed to be so spoiled, it feels nice :)

We came home and packed for NYC, I cooked up a bunch of stuff, we are eating all of our own food, I made a huge chili, mashed sweet potato and carrot (my new obsession, thanks maria LOL), steamed carrots and broccoli and roasted veggies, nom nom nom. So we are all packed and ready to hit the road in the morning.

We met our new petsitters tonight and are very grateful for them. We were in a pinch b/c despite having family here (his and mine), and some friends (I guess), we have no one to take care of our dog for a couple days, either in their house or ours, it really sucks and is disappointing. She's a calm, mellow dog who sleeps, so to stop over and let her out or to take her in, it is sad and upsetting that we have no one to count on or ask to do that for us, it's just making us feel like crap. :/ So we got a petsitter from CL and met them and they are super nice and it turned out fine even if it felt crappy a bit.

Off to upload some Christmas pics then falling into bed for a few hours :)

trying to write down a few of eli's recent random things...one of which is nursing while sitting up, so he can see stuff and pop on and off at will lol. this means i am typing with one hand!

eli is doing so awesome with sign language. i absolutely love and adore so much that i can communicate with him, and him with me. it's so amazing to see he's such a little baby still yet so capable of being able to let me know what's going on!

he does:
nurse, more, all done, eat, change and cat.

today he started doing peekaboo. it's SO freaking cute. he grabbed one of mairi's shirts, held it up over his head so high, then jerked it down fast, grinning his new toothy grin at me expectantly. when i said "peekaboo?" tentatively, not sure he was REALLY doing that, he squealed with laughter and delight, and promptly jerked the shirt over his head again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

For 15 minutes.

LMAO.

I am tired of peekaboo. But never tired of his sweet gurgles of laughter, and the fact that me, little nothing old ME, makes him laugh like nothing else in the world.

He really seems to be so close to walking, and I'm hoping he can just hold off a few months, hahaha. No desire to start chasing him any sooner than I have to (well, on foot anyway, I chase him plenty on "knee") He holds on to stuff and loosely and can just about stand with no assistance, so I don't know. March would be fine enough for me for this walking nonsense ;) He's still my teeny tiny baby thankyouverymuch.

I feel like there was more to share...but I can't remember.

Oh his first christmas he wasn't really interested in much but he ate some squash and a few pieces of turkey. He did have some cheese, he's a cheese freak ;)

OMG Rudy from TBL just replied to me on facebook.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH.

That is all.

Carry on.

I hope everyone had a blessed day. We had a very wonderful day. Different than in years past, but good to start "new" traditions and such.

Usually we have done Christmas morning @ MIL's. Either spent the night (when SIL wasn't here for Christmas day, too crowded for us to take up room etc) or going over early in the AM when we don't spend the night, having M open all her presents there, etc.

this year Mairi requested to do it @ home, and it was time. It was so very lovely and relaxing and just felt perfect. We didn't get a ton of presents because they (esp Mairi) don't need much. I got most of Eli's stuff on etsy, some great things, and from TJ Maxx got him these amazing foam blocks that he ADORES. He's gnawing on one right now LOL

He was totally uninterested in presents, wrapping paper, or anything else that didn't involve sleep. He was not amused that Mairi had the audacity to get him up at 9am. I tried to let him sleep but he grudgingly woke up and wasn't too pleased, he just wanted to cuddle/nurse, and occasionally check out what Mairi was doing, LOL

After we did presents and breakfast, Keith took the kids into the playroom to play with all their new stuff, and I did my Biggest Loser workout dvd (stupid Y being closed). It is 35m and was a real workout, I really loved it! I've tried dvds before to workout and just never could get into it, but this is so awesome.

We finally got everything packed up and headed out to my aunt's, where it was just an evil cornucopia of food, LMAO. I am not a huge holiday food fan, so I didn't really care, but oooh the appetizers were so seductive and the cookies and desserts...all of it was a tiny bit rough. Not rough enough that I came even close to indulging but rough that I really WANTED to, hehe.

However since sbux was closed today, I had some extra calories to play with, so I had a few pieces of cheese and some pepperoni and it was very good. I wished to consume massive quantities of it but instead I ate OH so slowly, closing my eyes and enjoying each bite and taste.

And then. AND THEN AND THEN AND THEN.

Keith and I decided earlier today (at home) that we would go for a mile run at my aunt's house. We would take our stuff and run after dinner.

I have NEVER run "IRL" before. Just a gym rat. I'm not a real runner. I don't want to be. I'm not good at it (and in general it's kind of high impact for me, what with 2 knee surgeries in my past and all)

But we decided it would be our Christmas present to ourselves and allow us to get a bit of motivation to remain on plan etc.

So I was nursing Eli and he fell asleep...normally I'd use that as an excuse/reason to just sit around like a lump. But I handed him off to my amazing aunt, who kept him sleeping, magically!

Keith and I got changed and ready to run...and it was pouring out!! ACK RAIN!!!

We decided we would go ahead with our run, despite the rain, and off we went. We did a loop/block around my aunt's house 2x, which we had figured out before was 1 mile total.

I hate rain. I hate getting wet (in rain). I hate running. I am lazy. I am not a runner. I do not have motivation.

But somehow, on CHRISTMAS DAY I went out and ran a mile in the rain with my husband. My time was atrocious (kinda sucky when I can run a mile so fast now at the gym, in well under 10 minutes...*ahem*)

However I did it. I ran, I ran my best, and I ran the entire freaking way despite feeling like I was dying and my thighs were about to fall off at any moment. I was really proud of myself on a few different levels, but that being said I really don't have a desire to do that on a regular basis per se. Keith wants to do it each Sunday at my aunts (insert hysterical laughter of the thought of that :P) But it's probably good for my body to shake things up etc, so maybe I'll do it once in a while.

Basically after that we just played euchre, talked about/planned our trip to NYC on Sunday (!!!!!!!!!!) and had a very nice time. We were going to go over to MIL's afterwards, but both kids fell asleep in the van, and FIL was going to bed, so we decided not to after all. Instead we came home (where both kids woke up LOL) and had a late supper/snack, ate some Jesus bday cake (Mairi and Keith) and now back to bed for the littles.

Tomorrow brings the Y (YAY!!), going over to MIL's to do christmas with her and SIL/BIL, and to grocery shop and pack for NYC.

On that note, about to go have my bedtime snack of some ice cream, nom nom nom :P (WW ice cream with PB, so GOOD)

AHA! Here is my post from last night that I thought got eaten, LOL.

Sooo from yesterday 12/23:

How is tomorrow Christmas Eve? How? I don't want 2009 to end, darn it!!! I waited so long for it and now it's almost over, argh!!!

Today was wonderful but LONG, I'm so freaking tired I still don't know why I'm awake, or how I'm awake...we went to the gym, did some errands, and went over to MIL's for dinner b/c SIL and BIL are here for Christmas. We had a nice time visiting with them, and then we had to swing by Walmart, and come home.

All presents bought, everything just needs to be wrapped. Which I was going to work on tonight but darn it, I left my tape @ MILs!!

Mairi is so funny, she "knows" Santa isn't real, we focus on Jesus as the Reason for the Season and Santa is just a fun thing, like th Moose Mascot at the Amerks game-fun to see while we are at the game, but he isn't the reason we are there, kwim? And he's not a REAL amerks player, he's just a guy in a costume to help us have fun while we are there.

However tonight she informed me that she really thinks Santa IS real, and she'd prefer for me to not discuss the fact that he is NOT real any more, LMAO.

So I told her that I am ok with pretend he is real, as long as she knows in her heart he's not. And she replied "well i guess we'll pretend that we are pretending, how about that?"

To which I agreed, because I was confused, BWAHAHA.

This was important because we were buying gifts for our angel tree kids the other day, and we were talking about it, as well as we were donating about 4 bags of toys to families that needed stuff for Christmas, and talking about how some people don't have enough money for Christmas toys...and she said "oh but Santa can just take care of them!"

And that my friends, is the number one reason (besides the whole Jesus thing :D) that I do not DO santa. how can you tell a child to have charity, to teach them to be giving, generous with their excess, and buy for others, if "santa will just do it" (not to mention the whole disgusting "be good or santa won't come crap, i hate hate hate that threat, i think it's sick. so santa doesn't come to poor people b/c they are "Bad??" i mean really, what message does that send, really?)

I digress, so i reminded mairi "see, that is why santa isn't real. mamas and daddies buy presents for their children, and it's fun to pretend santa does, but there is no santa to bring everyone toys. so if a mama and daddy don't have enough money, their children won't get any toys."

And mairi remarked that it was really too bad santa wasn't real b/c then mamas and daddies wouldn't have to buy presents, and i whole heartedly agreed with her, LMAO.

So enough of my santa ranting :P

*********************************

that's where my entry ended, so i'll just end it there...home, children tucked in, presents under the tree, about to eat some ice cream...it's a wonderful, magical christmas eve indeed :) Hope yours is as blessed as ours is!!!

I did ok this week on WI, I am very pleased, considering I was SURE I didn't lose hardly anything or even gained, HAHA.

I lost 2.4lbs this week. BB said 2.5. So I am pleased.

I am 218.5lbs. So far to go still, but baby steps.

32lbs til I hit my goal, I should be able to do that in 3 months...I hope. If not, I think I'll be close.

Keith is down to 239, he's lost 21lbs in 6 weeks. Bastard ;)

Today flew by and yet felt like a long day. Keith had an early morning as he was helping my gram help someone out, LOL. Long story but my gram's best friend helps this older lady (mid80s i think)out, b/c her family lives in PA. Well my gram's bestie left for FL, and volunteered my gram to take Polly to the train station to go see her family in PA.

Except my gram is no spring chicken herself, and she has a tiny car (ford escort) so how she was supposed to schlep Polly 40 minutes to the train station with 3 suitcases and a wheelchair, I'm not entirely sure.

Keith volunteered to do it, b/c he's so awesome like that. He drove out, picked Polly up (and gram) and took Polly to the train station (by our house). Carried all her stuff, etc. He's so sweet, my man. <3

Then he came back and picked us up, and we went Christmas shopping with gram (and she and K hit a few thrift stores b/c they are ADDICTS) It was lots of fun, and Panera for lunch=teh yum. Fuji chix salad is amazing.

Then it was off to the gym, a bit late, but getting there is what counts. I don't love going @ night, but oh well. The kids had a blast, they were doing some crafts tonight so Mairi made some cool stuff.

And after that we came home, and Mairi and I tried out one of my new TBL workout dvds, it's freaking awesome! I've bought like 428 workout dvds and never liked them, and this was SO SO SO fun to work out "with" the contestants from this season and last, and to have Jillian yell at you of course ;) I only did some of it, but wow it was a butt kicker, but totally doable, nothing crazy, just effective.

Now perhaps an early bedtime for me as lots to do tomorrow. I have my WI in the morning at JC, sort of dreading it b/c I think i SERIOUSLY have hit a plateau this time (not even mental at all right now, my scale is not budging so unless there is a true Christmas miracle, it's not going to be a fun WI tomorrow.) I'm kind of disappointed and depressed, but I don't know, I guess I"ll just see what I did or didn't lose (it will be the first week I didn't lose if I don't) and try to tweak it. I've not changed my workouts or my eating at ALL, and according to my BB I should have lost, but I don't know what's going on. I know I was at this weight (220) for a while previously, and I've heard/read that when your body gets to a weight it was at for a while, it remembers it and it makes you plateau. But calories in vs calories out, it seems like how can i NOT lose weight when I am so freaking religious about my food, EVERYTHING is measured, accounted for, etc. No nibbles, samples, bites, extras, nada, and I'm kicking my own ass at the gym ever freaking day. *sigh*

I'll just try to not talk about it or think about it til I can evaluate what tomorrow brings, and move on from there, I suppose. 35lbs to go btwn now and March, doable if I keep trucking ahead, failure if I do not.

Off to download a book on kindle and read in bed while I nurse my boy for a while.

How can it be Christmas week already? I want to savor the season a little more, thankyouverymuch!!

We had a lovely, wonderful, magical day. I'm really just so grateful and blessed for this time in my life. I'm grateful Keith is in school and can spend time with us daily and not have to work. I am grateful he can just focus on school and freaking get it done (one more semester, maybe? WOO!) and he gets unemployment insurance on top of school refunds, so really his job did him a huge favor by screwing him over. It wasn't a huge favor this summer, but it's turned into the biggest blessing we could have imagined. I'm so spoiled, when he goes back to work I don't know what I'll do, hire a manny? LOL

Anyway, we got ourselves up and around, and went to the Y, I really love going there. Not so much the whole working out thing (will I ever?) but I love having a break, just enjoying ME time, or me and Keith in the jacuzzi and sauna time, LOL, and not worrying one tiny bit about Eli. I can't imagine leaving him with anyone or anywhere without being a hot mess, but I'm 100% confident in the childwatch and it's a great peace of mind, so priceless.

I ran my butt of for 60 minutes today, and ran TWO 5ks, hahaha. over 6 miles, yay me. 6.5 or something like that, a little over 10k. Sweet. Someday I might run a real 5k, we'll see.

After the Y we went to Pittsford Plaza and walked around for 2 hours. It wasn't too cold out, Keith and I took turns wearing Eli in the mei tai, and we just went into all the stores there to finish up some last minute shopping odds and ends. I got Eli a couple adorably awesome haba toys at a little toy shop we love (so much more character than toysrus *shudder*)

We went to the Irish Import shop, Game Stop, Rugged Bear, One World Goods, TJ Maxx, and more. We had a great time walking around, laughing, shopping, it was good.

Then Keith had his last class, and we just hung out at his school because it was a short class, yay. We then went and did a bit more shopping, it never ends-we didn't even finish today, ugh!! It is the hardest thing in the world to do the following-shop for people that have money to buy whatever they want, and who are people that DO buy whatever they want for themselves any time they want to buy it, and you don't know them super well anyway.

Sooo it sucks b/c I hate to give a gift just for the fact of it, it's so dumb. But trying to figure out what to buy someone who has no true needs or wants, or you don't know their wants, is not so much fun. :/

After that we came home and had a yummy dinner, I made my awesome ultimate burgers (oatmeal, onions, cheese and spinach in them!) and everyone (but me) devoured them (very healthy recipe, from K's belly off diet)

Eli is so funny, he's so weird about solids. for over a week he hasn't really eaten anything (i offer 2-3x a day, basically anytime we/mairi eats) and he's wanting nada to do with it. i think b/c of his teeth? not sure.

then today, he ate his weight in food i think LMAO. he had cheese this morning, then tonight he had minestrone soup (2 ice cubes worth, plus 1 ice cube of chicken mixed in)

and THEN he ate a TON of mairi's burger, haha, with oatmeal/spinach/onions in it. he was loving it.

and he almost gave me a heart attack-

the little beast climbed out of his clip on high chair today, OMFG. i had my back turned, he was playing happily, next thing i know, i turn around and he's crawling at the other end of the table about to fall off.

heart attack much?

M had that seat til she was freaking THREE and could never get out of it.(there is no buckle or anything on it, i guess it's assumed a child cannot or will not get out of it?) but it sucks b/c it was a safe place, now not so much and we don't have room for a high chair so i gotta search for one with a buckle i guess. but by next week he can probably unbuckle it. i think i posted that he can take his shirt off now, right? AAAH!!!

in other news, I got the 2 newest TBL workout dvds, i'm ridiculously giddy about them, it's all the current and last season's contestants working out with you, how freaking fun is that? i got them for the odd times i can't get to the Y (like they are closed on xmas, the meanies LOL) and if i need to do a little extra for any reason (once in a while my workout gets cut short if eli needs to nurse or sleep or something) and they were on sale at best buy so happy early christmas to me, thanks Keithy <3

AND my new shoes are coming, i haven't got new shoes since my bday in 2008, i used to have like 50 pairs of shoes and then i stopped caring about shoes LOL and now i need some like whoa. so another christmas present is this awesome pair of keens from keith. yay!!

anyway, kids sleeping away, snuggly nursing sleeping baby boy on my lap of course, no schoolwork in site for over a month, and it's a great nice :)

The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me.
This offer does have some restrictions so please read:
- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make.
- What I create will be just for YOU & you are allowed to make requests (and I will try to honor them).
- It will be done before 2011.
- It might be cookies, a mix cd, a necklace, an original haiku, a scarf, who knows!
- You'll need to PM me your mailing address if you're one of the first 5.

In return, all you need to do is repost this on your LJ and offer to make 5 things for 5 other people.

I was extra super really tired today. Whew. Like falling asleep in the car all day tired. I'm never tired like that. It's going to be time for a long nap for me at some point, very, very soon. I was hoping it was today, but it was not to be, what with grocery shopping, going to the gym, meeting someone from CL and buying the cutest snowsuit EVER for Lijee (It's brown fleece with a bear ear hood and he looks/feels like a stuffed bear, I can't even handle Teh Cute!!), going to a kid's clothing sale, going to my gram's, plus I had 2349 assignments due for English class tomorrow and I had to finish them..so yeah. No nap today. Boo.

I did finish most of my english work, sans one paper that is due tomorrow at 5...it's only 4 pages and I have the groundwork laid so I think I can whip it up fast at some point tomorrow, in between all the business that tomorrow entails...

I need a vacation from life, people!

Oh yes, I am going to NYC in a week...but that's not really a vacation as more business LOL

I mean I just want to hole up in a hotel and be decadently lazy for a day or two.

You know, I think I shall make that my reward to myself when I lose 100lbs. I will book a hotel stay and just be lazy. I will not work out. I will not MOVE if I don't want to. I will do whatever I want (that does not involve binging or eating bad food, that has no place in my life ever again)

Now THAT is something to look forward to, and to know that when I end phase 2 of my journey (phase 1 being to get under 200lbs), I will have a nice restful recharging time waiting for me. Awesome.

Anyway, I'm just plain old tired. At the gym today it took me double the time to burn my calories because I just didn't have any oomph in me at ALL.

I still have to finish Christmas shopping, maybe Monday? How is it almost Christmas week? Where did this year go? More importantly, why the hell couldn't 2007 have FLOWN by like this, instead of feeling like 5 years in one? This year is one I would not have minded drawing out at all!

I'm reading such a good book. Actually I'm reading 2 very good books. One a cheesy historical romance by a fave author, part of a series I am loving, and one a book about hormones, weight loss and the endocrine system (Jillian Michaels from TBL wrote it) and it's freaking amazingly awesome as well. I love good books.

Mairi is dancing at a church tomorrow, it's kind of far away (30 min or so)and she has to be there early to warm up/practice...so we are getting up at like 7am tomorrow. OMFG Kill me. It'll be worth it to see her dance obviously but wow. Tired at the thought of being tired.

Not in bed b/c I am drinking some water and BLOGGING of course, but I need a few down minutes after working intensely all stupid night on my work. The sad thing is I didn't even leave it all til the last minute, I just have so much work from this stupid professor that even working on it daily I couldn't get ahead of it all. Grrr.

After M dances, we are going to my aunt's I think, as usual.

So much more to say, but at the risk of passing out in my chair, I'll save it for another time.

Off to snuggle with my boys in bed.

Today was such a great way to end the week.

I got up and made oreo truffles this morning while the kids were in bed-it's a novelty to start a task and be able to focus on it and complete it, haha I forgot how much longer ANYTHING takes with the littles under foot ;) So I whipped up a couple batches, and didn't eat one, which was pretty much the biggest accomplishment EVER, haha. No seriously I wasn't even tempted on any level. I have absolutely lost all cravings for anything, it's a Christmas miracle :)

M&E woke up, and we went to do some errands. I had a fitness (re)eval at the Y, to see how far I'd come since starting weight loss in Sept. I had to do this for one of my classes and I'm SO SO grateful! I probably would NOT have had this done, and it was so motivating to measure my success and accomplishments in areas other than the scale, esp when it was a mean scale this week LOL

So a run down, the biggest thing is that in Sept my body fat % was *gulp* 44.5%. The Y recommends 23% body fat, average/normal is 25% So I was almost DOUBLE that, siiiick.

I was expecting/hoping I'd be at least under 40 like maybe 39%.

Well, actually I now possess "only" 30.7% body fat!!! O_o I cannot BELIEVE I've lost that much fat, or that I'm less than 6% away from the ideal amount of body fat (I'm kind of confused about that, because I still have a good 70lbs to go to be anywhere NEAR my estimated "healthy weight/BMI", and even that would still be the big end, at 150lbs...but in losing 40lbs I lost almost 14% body fat, and I only need to lose about 5% more, so how can 70lbs=5%? I do not really know, but I guess I don't have to understand it all right now :)

Additionally, before I could do 20 pushups, today I did 35. Before I could do ZERO situps (in a minute) today I did 21 (still well under what is good, but wtfever, I did 21 more than I could do 3 months ago)

My cardio endurance is fab, already knew that. My flexibility SHOULD be 18 inches (reach) for my age, I did 12 inches in Sept, today I did 16 inches. Again still work to do but progress def. being made. I left feeling very encouraged.

Off to the Y, gave out Christmas presents to my childcare girls, I <3 them (and I ended up doing $10 each, I couldn't help it, they mean SO much to me to care for my babies while I can focus on losing weight, I had to pay it forward to them!) They ate my oreo truffles and wanted to marry me ;)

Keith surprised me with an early Christmas present, he is so amazing. He got me this:

New Hoopnotica MINI Hoop Pair

Mini hoops are the hot new way to turn up the heat in your upper body workout! Not only do these little beauties tone your arms, they offer a whole new outlet for hooping creativity.  They're all the rage in the hooping community and poi spinners will find themselves naturally drawn to them.

WOW did they kick my ass though!! My arms are KILLING me, but I'm really hopeful they will really tone and sculpt my arms, I really want some awesome definition in my arms some day!

It was absolutely insane, hooping with my big hoop on my waist and then arm hooping with TWO hoops at the same time!! I can't believe I can do it (maybe not super well or gracefully, but I DID it) How far I've come from not being able to keep any hoop up at all 2 months ago!

Also it was SO awesome, the open gym time was closing and I was packing up with the school aged kids from the Y program came in to use the gym, and the teacher was all about my hoops and asked me to do a demonstration/presentation for the class!! AAAAHHH!! i've never hooped in front of anyone really, and the arm hoops are BRAND new (and freaking hard to do the arms and the waist, hello) but I did it and they were all so impressed! I felt so great about myself, not this big fat girl who has no talent and can't DO anything, but I can do something really cool like hoop dancing and I"m getting good at it!

After the gym we did a few more errands (I rewarded my awesome self with a new nursing shirt from Motherhood, yay!) We had amerks tix but we were all just dragging so we decided to come home and take Christmas pics and make Christmas cookies instead. The pics, well, wrangling a 9 month old and grumpy as heck 5 year old who just wanted to make cookies NOW...not so much fun and out of 80 pictures, they all sucked. The whole one was smiling while the other was growling and then reverse, reverse, reverse, reverse thing. Grrr. Ah well.

Becky called and come over to do christmas cookies with us, so that was lots of fun, and great because we got to make lots of cookies,and then I sent most of them on their merry way with her, LOL.

Now I'm ridiculously tired, have an insanely busy day tomorrow, and I have a HUGE paper/project due on Sunday that I've barely tapped the surface of. Somehow I need to escape my loves for a few hours tomorrow and hide out at the library and get it DONE.

I am so exhausted, so off to post a few pics and then drop into bed.

We had a lazy day today, but it was a good one. Mairi and I went to a Holiday Henna party @ my henna lady's house. It was SO fun! Mairi got her first henna, she was ridiculously excited LOL (my henna lady won't do it if they are under 5) It looks gorgeous, both of ours :) I need to do it more regularly, haven't had it done since I had my belly with Lijee done :X

Also some cuddles with my big toothy boy, and Mairi eating peas out of an ice cream cone. She is awesome. :P

( Pics )

I was so pissed about my WI this week I forgot to share Keith's. I hate him a little for how awesome he's doing ;) Good thing he looks so hot so I don't hate him too much, hahaha!

He's kicking butt, he is 241.6 this week, OMFG!

His weight loss is as follows:

Starting weight: 260
Week 1: 255.5
Week 2: 252
Week 3: 249.8
Week 4: 246.9
Week 5: 241.6

Soooo in 5 weeks he's lost 18.4 pounds. That is just not RIGHT people, not right. he's not even working out as hard as I am, LMAO!!!! Or paying as much attention to calories!!!! He only has about 40lbs left to lose, yay Keithy!!

So my WI disappointment was weighing on me a bit (haha very pun-ny, :D) but overall it was just such a NICE day.

Keith went thrifting with his mom and my gram, they had lots of fun. I went to the gym with the kids, and had a ncie talk with A, the supervisor there. Have I mentioned how PISSED i am that she/they can't sit for us? GRRRRRRRRRRRR. I get queasy at the thought of leaving Eli (and Mairi though to a lesser extent) with anyone but my childwatch girls :(

Anyway, as I was picking the kids up, A said to me "I just wanted to tell you what a GREAT mom you are! I just LOVE watching you interact with your children, and usually when I see parents I think "I never want to be a parent like THAT, but when I see you I think "now that the kind of mom i want to be"

Aww I almost cried :) You couldn't give me a better compliment in the entire whole world. That made me feel so happy, and I told A thank you so much, I said I nannied/did childcare for a long time and I often felt the same way-many examples of how NOT to parent, LOL, so that helped shape my parenting. She said my children are just so sweet and such a joy to have-so much FUN, and that made me happy too. I KNOW it's not just something she was saying like to all the parents or something.

*happy sigh*

Especially as the last half of this year as been more challenging than any other time for my parenting, a little positive reinforcement that I'm not effing up too much goes a long way.

After the gym we headed home for M's spa party, Keith and Eli took my gram back to her car and did some shopping and had some boy's time out, LOL. They came back at the end of the party, and it melts my heart every single time lately, Eli is just SO happy to see me. It is still foreign to me (yes, even though M did the same thing about this age!) that he is so happy to see ME. That *I* am truly his favorite person in the whole entire world, and he loves me and needs me the very most/best. He has started doing this little snuggly thing that I just adore, he lays his head on my chest, kind of burying his face in my neck and ooooh sweet sweet heavens, is it just about the best thing in the whole world, yes, yes it is indeed. LOVE it.

So I snuggled my boy for a bit and nursed him b/c God forbid he hadn't nursed in TWO WHOLE HOURS LOL-he's extra nursey (is that even possible for him? HAHA) b/c of his teeth, he hasn't wanted any solids all week.

Then we headed out to do some shopping, ew snow, but we made it in one piece. Walmart, Marshalls, Dress Barn, and I forgot where else. Oh yeah Michaels. Got a lot accomplished, yay!

M's school got cancelled for tomorrow, so we have a whole day free, until gymnastics at night anyway. More shopping in our future I think and maybe making some Christmas cookies :)